As of: March 17, 2024, 10:01 p.m
By: Karsten Hinzmann
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Press
Split
International bone of contention that could divide NATO: the Taurus guided missile is hanging under a Bundeswehr tornado.
The system can reach Russia;
That's why Chancellor Scholz is withholding the weapon.
© Andrea Bienert/Bundeswehr/dpa
First the Foreign Minister, now the Defense Minister: The British Cabinet is urging the Federal Government to finally deliver cruise missiles to Ukraine.
London – Sharp and concentrated fire is now coming from Great Britain again – in the crosshairs: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
His categorical no to the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine has already angered the domestic opposition.
Now not only did British Foreign Minister David Cameron speak out, but his cabinet colleague and Defense Minister Grant Shapps is now following up.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron had already indicated his openness to a plan that would have worked similarly to a ring swap: Germany would send Taurus missiles to Britain and enable Britain to deliver more of its Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine.
Via
the Sunday Times,
Olaf Scholz now gets another shot across the bow – from Defense Minister Grant Shapps: “I want to help Germany deliver Taurus to Ukraine,” as he says.
Ukrainska
Pravda
picked up on this and spread the word in its own country.
Zelensky complains, and Shapps slips the information through
Apparently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had complained to the British delegation that he had “pressed Scholz on the Taurus missile issue, but received a categorical rejection,” as Shapps
told
Pravda .
After the start of the war, Great Britain delivered weapons to Ukraine earlier than other countries.
The support from London also has historical reasons - and is useful domestically, as the
Tagesschau
reported shortly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a pithy justification for this - his repeated promise: “However long it takes, the United Kingdom will stand by Ukraine.”
The British government gave the final impetus to the internationally contentious debate about tank deliveries when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that it would deliver 14 Challenger II main battle tanks.
A number that has now been significantly exceeded by German deliveries, but Great Britain took the political lead early on.
In this political and military offensive, the
Tagesschau
suspects that the British have a deep understanding of a country that is threatened with total subjugation: “Supporting Ukraine, including with weapons, is almost uncontroversial in the United Kingdom.
It’s about Ukraine’s fight for freedom – just like the British fight against Nazi Germany.”
Zelensky warns Scholz about Putin: “The weapons will hardly help you then”
According to Ukrainska Pravda,
Defense Minister Shapps also commented
on the lively discussions between German generals about the possible delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine and believes that the Russian side deliberately leaked this conversation in order to “embarrass the Germans and force them to deny their Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian President has also long tried to increase the pressure on the Chancellor, as he
clearly stated to Caren Miosga on
ARD .
Scholz feels that Russia will move closer to Germany if Ukraine doesn't hold out, says Zelensky.
This is a risk for Germany and other European countries.
An escalation between Russia and the EU or NATO would have serious consequences.
In any case, this would mean the beginning of the Third World War, said the Ukrainian president: “The weapons will hardly help you then.”
He therefore expects Germany to play a pioneering role compared to other countries in Europe when it comes to military support for Ukraine.
Scholz is a leader here: “That’s why his steps are those of a leader,” said Zelensky.
“I want him to be a close friend of Ukraine.” While the British had already stormed against the German Chancellor over the Taurus delivery, they became even more heated after the wiretapping embarrassment, as the
Germany editorial network
summarizes.
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Under the headline 'Germans reveal secret of British military operations in Ukraine', the Times
says
: "Highly sensitive details about British operations on the ground in Ukraine and the transport of weapons to the front have been leaked from an encrypted video call involving the German military." Also Former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace shot at Scholz's military: "We know that Russian intelligence is pretty well penetrated, that just shows that the Germans are neither safe nor reliable." (
kahin
)